A Sociocognitive Perspective on Literacy.

Abstract

Though most definitions of literacy focus solely on the uses of reading and writing, a sociocognitive perspective that incorporates social practices, conceptions of reading and writing, and literacy as a way of thinking is more productive. Within this view, literacy is culturally based, involves the higher intellectual skills, and is learned by children as they interact with their families and communities. Schools can capitalize on the social nature of this view of literacy learning by creating instructional experiences in which students gain skills as they engage in broader and more purposeful literacy activities. Studies indicate that United States students are learning to read and write, but are not becoming literate thinkers. Rather than learning how to do something new and thoughtful, such instruction emphasizes whether students have done something right. A sociocognitive view of literacy combines issues of society and schooling, asserting that (1) all learning is socially based, (2) literacy learning is an interactive process, and (3) cognitive behaviors are influenced by context and affect the meanings that learners produce. When considering the instructional implications of a particular interaction, it is important to 5etermine who controls the interaction, what pedagogical functions are served by it, and what form each participant's contribution takes. A six-page list of references concludes the document. (JD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************* and urbanization. Issues of biculturalism and co-culturalism (see Griffin and Cole, this volume) are often overlooked in attempts to deal with literacy learning, although such issues are particularly important both in the nn44-0A c*.*-. A Sociocognitive Perspective on Literacy Judith A. Langer Stanford University Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI Position or Policy PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Judith A. Langer CO TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES CO INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Cr% Issues of literacy are critical to society -to its eNJ innermost workings at economic, political, and social levels. C=3 LLJ Literacy involves how people think, and learn, and change -and how society changes as a function of the changes in its people. I will argue here that many scholars, as well as the general public, have regarded literacy somewhat narrowly -as the ability to read and write and get on at some minimal level in day-to-day life and work -and that because of this restricted view, our solutions to very pragmatic issues of literacy learning and instruction have suffered, as have national interpretations of literacy-in-society for policy and planning. While the marks of a literate person have changed over the years (Resnick and Resnick, 1977), such changes have not led to broader definitions of literacy for society or schooling. In the United States, school-based notions of literacy have progressed from literacy as the ability to read a simple, familiar passage aloud, to the ability to answer literal questions about the passage, to the understanding of word and sentence meaning in an cr unfamiliar text -a progression from rote to functional 0

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